Doctors Employed by Santa
Clara County Taking Major Junkets at Taxpayers' Expense. More reports of
government employees junketing at taxpayers' expense are surfacing. How many
more have not yet been uncovered? In Santa Clara County, doctors at the
county's cash-strapped public hospital (Valley Medical Centers) are running up
an average tab of $650,000 per year for taxpayer-funded travel.
The latest in what seems an
unending story of public employee junkets was uncovered by a county audit
requested by Supervisor Ken Yeager. He said, "VMC has been far too lax in
approving travel expenses – there's virtually no oversight."
The doctors have traveled to
Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Italy, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Spain, China, Aruba,
Thailand, the West Indies and the Bahamas. Hospital officials sought to defend
the trips as sound and comparable to those taken by staff at other quality care
facilities.
According to the audit, more
than one-third of all trips were to Hawaii. Seventy-five percent of the
doctors' hotel stays involved four- and five-star accommodations. Twenty
percent of travelers brought along companions who were not county employees,
including children, and billed for their costs through hotel and vehicle
charges.
Hospital officials said the Hawaii trips were fully justified. (Source: San Jose Mercury News, December 17.)
Cal-Taxletter,
December 18, 2009
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